The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files

Latest Episodes:

Fabulous Foods of Formosa (and Stinky Tofu) - S3-E34 Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

Taiwan is a food-lover's paradise, with tasty treats, delicious dishes, scrumptious suppers, marvelous morsels... a versatile, vast variety of fabulous foods. John and Eryk aren't really down with the whole clichéd, “let's make stuff about foreigners eating stinky tofu” phenomenon, but we decided to do a food episode, topped with some yummy yarns from yesteryear. Hear the origin story of the locally globally-famous Chiayi turkey rice, the 15-star gourmet Din Tai Fung restaurant chain, and finally, yes, we'll sniff out some feelings on chou doufu 臭豆腐, the smelly snack that seems to somehow always steal the show.

Visit formosafiles.com for maps, videos, links to books, extra info, and more.

Tales of Tokyo and Taiwan - S3-E33 Nov 09, 2023

Show notes

This week we're looking at Tokyo, and telling a few tales that connect events in that major world city to people, places, and things in Taiwan.

ポッドキャストをお楽しみください

Visit Formosafiles.com for pictures, links and more.

Hakka Author Wu Zhuoliu, Part 2 - Japan’s Surrender and 2/28 - S3-E32 Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

Writer Wu Zhuoliu 吳濁流 (1900-1976), sadly, never saw Taiwan blossom into a democracy. But he left us with some of the most important works ever written about 20th-century Taiwan. Among these is the autobiography “The Fig Tree”, whose early chapters mirror the events in his acclaimed novel “Orphan of Asia.”

In S2-E29, we covered Wu’s younger years as in Japanese colonial Taiwan, his grandfather’s tales of a cultured, ancient China and the influence these ideas had on Wu. We told the story of Wu’s time in “the Motherland,” where he discovered that the China of his imagination was simply that – imaginary.

Today, we pick up his story as WW2 comes to an end and the Chinese Nationalists arrive. Wu describes how Taiwanese jubilation soon turned to despair, and how this exploded into riots and killings known collectively as the 2/28 Incident.

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And, visit formosafiles.com for pics, links and more.

WELCOME TO THE PODCAST! - The "White Formosan" - S1-E1 Oct 31, 2023

Show notes

Formosa Files has gained a lot of new listeners of late, and many seem to begin listening from where they first encounter the program. But there are lots of great episodes from seasons 1-2 and, as this one is the one that started it all, we're rereleasing a new edit of Season One, Episode One: “The White Formosan.” Our sound quality and editing skills have improved greatly (um... we hope you agree) since the launch of the podcast in late 2021, but we hope our enthusiasm and love for telling stories from Taiwanese history has only grown with our audience. Thanks to long-time listeners for sticking with us, and a very big welcome to all the newer folks!

Originally released on September 6, 2021.

Visit Formosafiles.com for links, picture, images, maps, book reviews, videos and more!

A Formosa Files INTERVIEW: Manga Artist Mark Crilley Talks About His New Book - LOST IN TAIWAN Oct 26, 2023

Show notes

Mark Crilley is one of the top 10 American manga artists, and he has a new graphic novel out called LOST IN TAIWAN(2023). Formosa Files caught up with Mark, who spilled the beans on why he was here in the late 1980s and early 1990s, what he loved (and what he loved a bit less) about Taiwan. After listening to this fun interview with Eryk and Mark Crilley, you’ll want to get a copy of LOST IN TAIWAN; it'll make you laugh, could be used as ESL material, and, like for Eryk, might just reignite some affection for things in Taiwan some of us have gotten so used to, we've forgotten just how beautiful and interesting they are.

Visit Formosafiles.com, as Mark gave us over 20 “sneak peek” pages of art from his book.

The Sport of Golf in Taiwan [ENCORE] Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

Hear the tale of Japanese colonial officials discovering golf as the "new cool thing for elites" -- and ordering a course built in just a few hours. Plus, the story of Lu Liang-huan (呂良煥), a man from a poor family who worked his way up from being a caddy to an impressive 2nd place win at the 1971 British Open.

NOTE: We re-released this episode in celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the Kaohsiung Golf and Country Club 高雄高爾夫俱樂部, a public course and oasis of nature, trees, and birds in the middle of the city (and, of course, an international-standard golf course). This episode first came out in July 2022. The Kaohsiung Golf and Country Club was managed by the sponsors of the Formosa Files podcast, the Frank C. Chen Foundation. The golf course has now been converted into a public park.

Visit formosafiles.com for pics, links and more.

The “Tea Thief” - Robert Fortune's Very Brief Trip to Taiwan (1854) - S3-E31 Oct 19, 2023

Show notes

Tea was domesticated in China, and the knowledge of how to grow it, harvest it, and process it was a closely guarded secret. After basically becoming addicted to the beverage, the British needed to find a way to grow their own tea, as buying it from China was eating up their silver reserves. So, missions of “tea espionage” were conducted, most notably by a Mr. Robert Fortune, who had the good fortune to be able to visit Taiwan on a whirlwind trip. He only spent a day on the island, but he wrote about it, giving us a look at pre-treaty port Qing era Taiwan, and he made several interesting botanical discoveries.Visit formosafiles.com for links, pics and images, etc.

[ENCORE] The 4,300-Kilometer Chase of an Illegal Taiwanese Fishing Boat (1989) Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

Taiwan loves seafood, and boats from this island trawl for yummy ocean offerings thousands of kilometers away from our shores. Taiwanese fishing vessels are very good at what they do, but they weren't always so good in how they did it. The use of drift nets, so-called "walls of death" that entanglespecies like sea turtles and dolphins, drew international ire. Taiwan boats also did a lot of fishing in waters they weren't supposed to be in. By 1989, the US Coast Guard had had enough and launched a sting operation to catch the violators. They ended up chasing a Taiwan-registered ship for some 2,700 miles (or about 4,300 kilometers). Here's the story:

Note: This episode was originally released on January 9, 2022, under the title E1-S23 - Walls of Death.

Pics, links, maps, and more at formosafiles.com.

Photographing Taiwan – Interview with Chris Stowers [Bonus] Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

John chats with photographer Chris Stowers. In 1988, Chris sailed a traditional Indonesian boat on an epic sea voyage (a trip described alongside the three-part series on the Free China junk, S3-Ep23-25). This led to his first story and photos being published, and the beginning of his career in photography. He came to Taiwan on a political photo shoot in 1991 and made it his home base for covering Asia later that decade. Work and wanderlust have taken Chris to over 70 countries, and his pictures have appeared in numerous publications, from Newsweek to the New York Times to numerous guidebooks. In an interview full of practical recommendations, Chris tells John about a recent book, “Discovering Taipei on Foot,” gives insights on getting great pictures of people, and shares his favorite temples, festivals, and photo spots.

Pictures, links and more at formosafiles.com, and visit chrisstowers.com for images by Chris Stowers.

When the Russians Bombed Taipei (and other aviation stories) - S3-E30 Oct 06, 2023

Show notes

Here's something we bet you didn't know: in 1938, Soviet pilots in Soviet planes (disguised to look like ROC Air Force planes) bombed the main airfield in Taihoku (now the Songshan Airport 臺北松山機場 in Taipei City). We've got that story and more as this week John and Eryk get a bit geeky and delve into some of the stories behind the planes we saw during recent visits to the Gangshan Aviation Education Exhibition Hall (航空教育展示館).

Visit formosafiles.com for lots of great pics, links and more.

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